Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 688

Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started for poets. This week, write a leap-year poem.

For this week's prompt, write a leap-year poem. Tomorrow, February 29, is a day that only exists once every four years. So a leap-year poem could be about that actual date. Or it could dive into what you're going to do with that "extra day" you get once every four years. Or, well, who am I to limit your interpretation of the prompt?

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

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Here’s my attempt at a Leap-Year Poem:

“And Bounds,” by Robert Lee Brewer

When I was young, days came at me
one at a time. Weeks were journeys,
and years felt like a lifetime unraveling.

Now, I leap from week to week
so that even months feel like puddles
to be splashed through as I continue

to run through the years, picking
up speed as I go, knowing there is
a leap at the end. One I can't see.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.